Scientists find brain region that blind use to recognise faces - Times of India
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NEW DELHI: Scientists have found the brain region which is used when the blind recognise basic faces , known as the fusiform face area. While it is known that blind people can compensate for their loss of vision by using other senses to a certain extent, a study at Georgetown University , US, tested the extent to which this compensation exists. "Our study tested the extent to which this plasticity, or compensation, between seeing and hearing exists by encoding basic visual patterns into auditory patterns with the aid of a technical device we refer to as a sensory substitution device," said Josef Rauschecker , professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the university. Using the specialised device that translated images into sounds, the blind can recognise a basic 'cartoon' face, such as a happy face emoji, the researchers said in their study published in the journal PLoS ONE. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine the bra